PITTSBURGH – On Wednesday ahead of NCAA Tournament play, John Calipari was in a jovial mood as he fondly recalled memories of growing up in his beloved Pittsburgh.
By Thursday night, following a stunning 80-76 opening round loss to No. 14 seed Oakland, the sentiment among Kentucky fans was, “If Calipari enjoys being home so much perhaps he should stay.”
Big Blue Nation is livid – social media molten lava hot – with what they view as an implosion of their beloved Wildcats program, and losing to Oakland was the final straw.
Moreover, it’s not the haters. Those who despise his NBA dream over NCAA banners logic washed their hands of the coach long ago. Today, it’s the grandmotherly types who have determined it’s time for Calipari to move on. But instead of chasing him with pitchforks, they wish him well and offer some fresh-baked cookies for the trip.
It started in 2021 with the worst record in a century, continued in 2022 with the embarrassing loss to 15 seed Saint Peter’s and into 2023 with a second-round loss to Kansas State. Thursday night’s debacle means Kentucky hasn’t advanced to the NCAA Tournament second weekend since 2019.
That’s four years of misery that completely obliterates Calipari’s outrageous early success of four Final Fours in his first six seasons. Those years feel like ancient history found if one conducts an archaeological dig in the rubble of what remains of this basketball program.
Compounding the current situation is that the fan base had permitted itself to believe once again, falling head over heels in love with the players on this team. It was fast, it was fun, it was successful and it held great promise for a March Madness run.
It ended with a sickening thud.
“I’m really hurting for them because there’s other years your team, you max out and you lose a game,” Calipari said. “This team, I really felt could have done so much more. I thought I had a team that could do some stuff.”
He did and that’s the saddest part. But the season was derailed in one horrific night for two primary reasons.
What can’t be laid at Calipari’s feet is that the freshmen, for the first time all season, came out of the locker room incredibly tight and it showed with uncharacteristic mistakes that doomed the dream. Seniors Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves played valiantly, but the rookies all wet the bed. Sadly, none struggled more than Bluegrass darling Reed Sheppard, who was terrified early, but the court was littered with deer in the headlights carcasses.
“I thought they were anxious,” Calipari said. “But at halftime we’re down a bucket and you think, ‘OK, we got this.’ But we miss a dunk. We miss a lay-up. We miss another play and all of a sudden it becomes anybody’s ballgame.”
Mostly true. Oakland commanded this game from start to finish. Kentucky was merely trying to steal it late, which would have been an injustice.
What can be laid at Calipari’s feet was the decision to ignore the run-and-gun style that made this team so dangerous. For the first time in his career, Calipari had the best 3-point shooting team in America and the No. 2 scoring offense, yet elected to holster that weapon in favor of his old ways of pounding the ball inside, presumably because of a height advantage.
A fast style gets the blood flowing, easing the nerves with many more opportunities to make up for a mistake. Slow the pace and every possession is burdensome, compounded exponentially as the end draws near.
Truth be told, the Hall of Fame coach never fully took advantage of that generational offense or he wouldn’t have become so enamored with forcing one of the 7-footers to become a factor. After 30 games you accept that the defense will not improve and put a lineup on the floor capable of scoring 100 points every game. Catch me if you can, knowing most could not. Sadly, we’ll never know.
Still, Kentucky could have beaten Oakland. Kentucky should have won. But it did not, and the anger will not be subsiding anytime soon.
Question is, and the only thing that matters, is where does it all go from here?
Fans that want Calipari out, a club with its highest membership ever, should probably find another hobby. The coach has a lifetime contract with a buyout north of $33 million. It’s probably too rich to absorb and the coach isn’t likely to walk away from $9 million a year no matter how tense the relationship with stockholders. Besides, Calipari’s ego would never allow him to walk away a loser.
The only other option is to adjust. Calipari, not the fan base. He soared to the heavens in the early years with a freshman-dominated roster, but may be forced to change as the COVID fallout and transfer portal has resulted in much older locker rooms.
“I’ve done this with young teams my whole career and it’s going to be hard for me to change. I don’t see myself just saying, ‘OK, we’re not going to recruit freshmen,’” Calipari said. “But it’s changed on us. All of a sudden it’s gotten really old. So we’re playing teams that our average age is 19, their average age is 24 and 25. So do I change because of that?”
No, you change to salvage your legacy and rebuild the program because that gold standard you so often talk about has become tarnished.
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